A new journey into homesteading "pic heavy"

[baymule]

BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!! YOU'LL LOOK AT ALL THOSE FABULOUS PICTURES OF VEGGIES YOU NEVER KNEW EXISTED AND YOU'LL WANT EVERYTHING!! WE CALL IT GROCERY STORE SYNDROME.......

 

[Chic Rustler]

Ok, so heres a question for you gardeners. Do you guys ever do a fall garden? Farmers almanac says i could plant in august for fall. Im thinking of giving it a shot with some better seeds and seeing what i get

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Absolutely! Any and all brassica's...cabbage and broccoli for sure, for whatever reason I don't have good luck with either cauliflower or brussels sprouts... also greens, and root crops. I love a good fall garden. Some folks and growing zones can get another crop of tomatoes too. I haven't found the secret to that one.

 

[Mini Horses]

Fall -- Kale, collards, peas, root crops like turnips, beets, etc.
Some of your best greens ever need a frost to bring to flavor.
And if you don't have deep freeze, many of the root crops can stay in the ground, some mulch and stay nice.

By the way, my chickens LOVE turnips. I thick slice them and they devour. Pumpkins are great feed for them. My goats eat both eagerly.......so grow some of these and they store well for several months if handled properly.

 

[BarredBuff]

Back in the day...

We grew a big batch of mustard greens and turnips. They get better with the cold, and the chickens and rabbits LOVED the greens. I would clip buckets of the overly mature plants to feed. It was a great use of the extras!

I also have grown early maturing bush beans, and the standard brassicas.

 

[Chic Rustler]

Whats a brassica?

Idk, i have plenty of room. Probably wont see frost until late november or december

I was thinking cabbage, carrots, maybe some parsnips and rutabaga (never seen one. I want to try it) etc. Maybe a second round of pole beans or some cucumber. What kind of winter squash would be good?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brassica

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Winter squash does not mean a squash that's grown in winter. It's a squash that is meant to "keep" over the winter after it is picked. They are generally a hard-skinned squash. Squashes such as butternut, hubbard, acorn, delicate, buttercup... lot of varieties... pumpkins are sometimes lumped into the same category. They are more slow growing than the summer squashes and are generally picked in the fall and are good keepers as long as you have a cool place to keep them and the skin is not damaged.

 

[Britesea]

Our season here is so short and unreliable, that I usually still have the spring-grown cold hardy plants that can tolerate a bit of heat - brassicas, favas, chard etc growing into the fall. I've never had the heart to yank them out to plant a fall garden when they are still faithfully giving me produce.

 

[baymule]

Look at the maturity date on the seeds. I selected a lettuce variety that shows the days to maturity. That will help you decide what to plant for your winter garden. If a vegetable is 100 days to maturity and you will have frost in 70 days, then don't plant that one!

https://www.bountifulgardens.org/products/VLE-4273